A 16-year-old girl in Harris County, TX, has filed a lawsuit against her parents, alleging that they are trying to force her to have an abortion she does not want. The teen, who is approximately 8 weeks pregnant, claims that her parents are using verbal and physical threats to try to force her to have ... read more »

Researchers from Harvard University have linked TV viewing and lack of exercise to a low sperm count, according to a study published n the British Journal of Sports Medicine. The study found that while watching TV for 20 hours or more a week can lower sperm count, adding 15 hours or more of exercise a week ... read more »

Inspired by the TV show “The Biggest Loser,” San Antonio sisters Alyssa, 8, and Makayla Esparza, 9, have started a weight loss and healthy living challenge group on Craigslist. The girls started the challenge group to try to get support from other kids their age who live in their neighborhood. They hope that the group will ... read more »

Women who have bariatric surgery (such as the lap band) should wait at least 12-18 months after surgery before becoming pregnant, says a new review of research published in The Obstetrician and Gynaecologist journal. The BBC reports that researchers found an increased risk of miscarriage in pregnancies conceived less than 18 months after surgery. 31% of those ... read more »

  The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is discouraging parents from allowing their children to play on trampolines, citing the high number of children who are injured on trampolines each year. In fact, they are asking pediatricians to actively request that the parents of their patients not allow recreational trampoline use. Those at the greatest ... read more »

A new study published in the online FASEB Journal found that what female mice ate before pregnancy altered their DNA, and these changes were then passed down to their offspring. These changes affected the ways their babies metabolized essential fatty acids. Study author Mihai Niculescu, M.D., Ph.D., from Nutrition Research Institute at the University of ... read more »

  A Rhode Island school district has put an end to all father-daughter, mother-son events after a parent filed a complaint with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). In the complaint, the parent siad that the events made her daughter feel left out because she does not have a father figure in her life. The ... read more »

A Philadelphia mother is furious after she was ticketed for allowing her two-year-old son to pee against a lamp post in what she calls “a potty training accident.” Caroline Robboy was given a $50 for public urination and a lecture on parenting from the officer. The incident occurred when Robboy was out with her in-laws and ... read more »

The Associated Press has found that parents who send their children to private schools in California are more than twice as likely to opt out of recommended vaccinations than those whose children go to public school. This percentage increased by 10% last year despite the increase in whooping cough cases, which is at its highest ... read more »

According to the journal Pediatrics, the answer may be yes. A new study by the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Baltimore, Md., found that 4-year-olds whose mother suffered mild or moderate depression during their first year of life were 40% more likely to be at or below the 10th percentile for height than children ... read more »

A study published in today’s edition of the journal Pediatrics found that letting children cry for short periods of time during sleep training does not cause lasting psychological problems or damage the parent-child relationship. The study looked at the effects of two different sleep training methods: “controlled comforting”, in which the parents comfort the child ... read more »

A study in the Philippines published today after four years of research shows that fathers who were about to sleep in the same bed or in the same room as their children had a significant dip in their testosterone levels, while fathers who slept in a separate room from their children had no change in ... read more »

A study presented at the British Science Festival argues that freezing embryos before implantation in the IVF process results better outcomes for both mother and baby. In the study — done by Dr Abha Maheshwari of Aberdeen University and published in the Fertility Sterility journal – 13,000 IVF pregnancies were studied, and it was found that frozen ... read more »

Osvaldo “Popeye” Rivera, a 31-year-old man from Camden, NJ, is accused of stabbing two children — killing one — while they slept in their home. Rivera, high on PCP-aced marijuana, entered the children’s home on the 900 block of Ware Street at about 2am on Sunday while they were being watched by a 14-year-old babysitter, and killed ... read more »

The ratings website Bundle.com has put together a list of which cities spend the most and the least on their children. Bundle looked at how much parents spent on toys, clothing and non-essential items for their children and determined the average amount spent over the past three years. They then compared that to the national average. It did ... read more »